Tuesday, 29 December 2009

See Napoli.com for news of the discovery of the ancient theatre of Baia, thanks to satellite imagery. The remains of the theatre are under water and can be seen just off the coast. They are located beneath (and partly built into) a hill where at a later date the Castello Aragonese was constructed. The theatre faced the sea, and it has been suggested that this is the famous 'Theatre of Caesar' (Tacitus claims that Caesar had a villa on the Bay of Baia), and that the remains of the villa and theatre were incorporated into the later castle.

Session: 5H: Baths and the City, Friday, January 8, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM3. Campanian Baths: Indigenizing Inspiration in the Form and Function of Public Baths (Tanya Henderson, University of Alberta)

Session: 6B: Pompeii, Friday, January 8, 2:45 PM - 5:15 PM1. Dialogues of Graffiti in the House of Maius Castricius (Rebecca R. Benefiel, Washington and Lee University)2. Pompeii’s Water Supply: A Reappraisal Suggested by New Geochemical Analyses of Sinter Deposits (Duncan Keenan-Jones, Macquarie University, John Hellstrom, University of Melbourne, and Russell Drysdale, Newcastle University)3. How the Alexander Mosaic was Used (Martin Beckmann, University of Western Ontario)4. Dine and Dash: Zooarchaeological Comparisons among Households in Pompeii (Michael MacKinnon, University of Winnipeg)5. Re-contextualizing the Naples Philosophers Mosaic (Tamara Durn, Cleveland Museum of Art/Case Western Reserve University)

Let me know if I've missed any.

Now, I feel that the AIA is a good excuse for another Blogging Pompeii Social Event! I suggest that we meet after the 'Pompeii' session on Friday afternoon, and retire to the closest bar for an hour or two. (This is not restricted to Blogging Pompeii contributors - anyone who wants to come and talk Pompeii is welcome). So, who's game?

Wednesday, 23 December 2009

Hi Jo I'm not sure if this is going to work. It's the first time that I have blogged. Just to say thank you for the nice comments about Latrinae et Foricae and My BAR on 'Latrines and Downpipes in Pompeii' has just been printed Barry

I REALLY wish I was at Pompeii for this - Mozart in the Villa of the Mysteries on Christmas Day! This is part of a series of concerts and special openings of the sites of Campania over the Xmas holidays. If anyone makes it to any of these concerts, please take some photos for me! Here are the details:

The active strato volcano Mt Mayon shares similar characteristics to Vesuvius and is on the verge of an eruption in the Albay region, Luzon Island in the Philippines. The volcano and its eruption will be of interest to scholars studying the Vesuvian area including Pompeii as the type of eruption expected could mimic the catastrophic AD 79 eruption that destroyed the region.

Those who are following the eruption patterns closely after the volcanic activity hit major newsources last week will notice that the volcano is renowned for its perfect cone shape (similar to the likely depiction of a cone-shaped Vesuvius dating from the first century AD) prior to blowing off much of the cone. The eruption pattern also includes up to a thousand earthquake tremors per hour and scientists with PHILVOCS are predicting a pyroclastic flow if the volcano moves to from its current Level 4 eruption to a Level 5 alert (an active volcanic eruption), which is expected imminently.

For those of us who study the Vesuvian region in antiquity, let us hope that those occupying the area are able to escape safely, as Vesuvius and other volcanic catastrophes have illustrated too succinctly that distance is the only safety that can be provided.

Sunday, 20 December 2009

A big thank you to all those who took the time to give us some feedback about Blogging Pompeii. The majority who replied were professionals in the field, but there were also some useful comments from members of the public. It was interesting to note that many people heard about the blog through word of mouth (or word of email!) - so keep spreading the news!

Overall the comments were extremely positive and constructive. Here is a brief summary, which I have divided into 1) Things we can do now; 2) Things we can do with a bit of help; and 3) Things we (unfortunately) can't do.

1) Things we can do nowi) There was a great deal of discussion and comment about the current policy of only allowing named contributors to comment on posts. In the end, more people wanted to keep the current restriction rather than remove it - although it was a close-run thing.Here is my solution: the current restriction will remain, but comments can be emailed to bloggingpompeii@gmail.com. We will then post them on readers' behalf. Alternatively, anyone with a Facebook account can comment freely on the Blogging Pompeii mirror site.

ii) There were some useful comments about the structure of the blog. I have already made a few changes, including removing the label cloud (which was getting a bit unwieldly) and making the search box more obvious. You can now also see a list of recent posts - which at least gives an overview of current activity to those who are too busy to visit the blog every day. If you have any other suggestions about structure or appearance, email them to me.

2. Things we can do with a bit of help.

i) The most popular items on Blogging Pompeii are the news about current events and news about current research initiatives. However, MANY people want more news about current field work. This is unpublished- apart from occasional press releases - which means that we need researchers in the field to post information about their work. This is obviously tricky since Blogging Pompeii is a blog, not a formal publication. But there are a few possibilities here:

1. Contributors can keep their profiles updated with news of their current projects.2. Contributors, or anyone with a current project, could send in links to their project websites to be added to the list of current projects, and can post when updates have been made to these websites.3. Contributors can consider writing a brief informal summary of their work for Blogging Pompeii, to tide us over until proper publication.4. Contributors should post or email in any new publications about their work.5. Perhaps we can interview people about their current projects. If anyone would like to interview a fellow scholar for Blogging Pompeii, or if anyone would like to be interviewed, email me.

ii) Discussion! Many, many people commented that they would like to see more discussion. One of the problems here is that the blog is so fast-moving that posts quickly drop from the first page. However, I think we should give discussion a chance! I am willing to start discussions (if I know anything about the topic!), or to find people to start a discussion - but I would like readers and contributors to suggest topics that they would like to discuss or see discussed. Email your ideas to bloggingpompeii@gmail.com. I notice that discussions often develop out of questions asked by contributions. A good example is the recent discussion of how to identify modern mortar! In general questions get good responses - demonstrating the good will and desire to help that exists among contributors! So, questions might be another way to generate more discussion. Think about posting some questions, or email them to us.

Related to i) and ii), several people commented that they would like to see more contributors blogging about their current work.

iii) More book reviews! Ok, this would be great! But it needs contributors to review books!

iv) Web conferences and lectures. Wow! I would love that. But I have no idea how to do it, or whether blogspot blogs can do it. If anyone has any ideas about this - about how to do it practically, or about possible topics, - or if anyone would like to organise such an event, email bloggingpompeii@gmail.com.

v) Project calendar. There is already a link to the Pompeiana project calendar in the right hand column. More people should use it!

vi) More links with Pompeiana.org. Yes, great! Any ideas about this should be emailed to me, or to Eric Poehler of Pompeiana.org.

3. Things we (unfortunately) can't do.

i) A weekly summary of posts. Sorry, I don't have time to do this! But in the right-hand column you can now see a list of recent posts. I hope this helps!

ii) Translation of Italian. I have a problem with providing translation: this is an academic site that aims to bring together scholars from around the world. I want to avoid the impression that this is primarily an English-language blog. Contributors should feel free to blog in their own language, in the knowledge that other scholars can understand them. I want to encourage more Italian, French, Spanish and (sigh) German, and I don't want international contributors to think that they have to blog in English (which might put them off posting at all). The idea is to be as inclusive as possible.Providing translation is also time-consuming ...However, for those who don't know much Italian, we will attempt to give a very brief idea of what an Italian article is about. That will help a bit, I hope.

iii) Remember that Blogging Pompeii is dynamic, not static. We can't expand the blog format on this site, and we can't set up discussion groups or email groups. We can develop more links with Pompeiana.org, however, and readers should also take a look at Peter Clements' useful AD 79 site (answers to some questions asked in the survey can be found here).

Finally, one frequent comment - readers would like to see posts from a greater number of contributors. I would say that over the year the number of people posting has steadily increased. But - if we are to have a true sense of community, which is the primary aim of this blog - more contributors need to develop the blogging habit! Contributors - embrace your inner blogger! And UPDATE YOUR PROFILE.

Remember that this blog is a democratic and open enterprise. If you have any further comments or suggestions over the coming months (and years!), email them in.

Thursday, 17 December 2009

I've already posted about the DVD "Herculaneum: diaries of darkness and light".

I just wanted to bring it to your attention that in the new year it will be distributed by Electa (and so available in site and museum bookshops and online) but the price will increase (to 18.90 euros).

However, the film maker, Marcellino de Baggis, has been able to sell it at the original - and lower - price on his website and will keep it at 16.90 euros until the end of year. Now's the time to get your copy for Christmas while it's still cheap!

It has come to my attention that there are still copies available of Laurentino Garcia y Garcia's 1998 Nova Bibliotheca Pompeiana. I had assumed this was out of print! All our institution libraries should have a copy of this - so, if yours doesn't, get them to order it from Bardi Editore.

Wednesday, 16 December 2009

And a collection of random Twitter comments about Pompeii from the last few months (after filtering out the rock band 'Pompeii', the US town 'Herculaneum', the race-horse 'Pompeii Spirit', the nightclub 'Pompeii Lounge' and the almost daily tweets about Pink Floyd's concert in the amphitheatre of Pompeii!). I have categorised them into:

The misinformed:

‘So according to the German translation of Lisa's sentence in The Simpsons the people of Pompei froze to death when the vulcano erupted.’‘Overheard at Pompeii: "So, basically, you're standing in ancient poop."’

The shocked:

‘Watching a show about ancient Pompeii. There's a guy on it who is an "expert on economics of prostitution in ancient Rome." The hell?’‘Okay, Google Streetview misses out much of my city and instead adds some place in Italy. I mean I've never even heard of Pompeii.’

The frankly weird:

‘I snuck into Pompeii once, in the area that was still being excavated. Saw an arm sticking out of a wall; made me sad for days.’‘Today is the anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius when God punished Pompeii for all those naked statues.’‘And as I finish my lunch, I can think only of the walls of Pompeii.’

Pompeii as a metaphor:

‘Once again, Los Angeles feels like living in Pompei.’‘Inbox buried. Think Pompeii.’‘just about burned my house down by pressing 0 too many times on my microwave. Now it smells like Pompeii’‘the instructions say 'simmer,' not 'recreate the last hours of Pompeii.'’‘The onion volcano NEVER gets old. You just hafta worry about them putting too much stuff in there and it going Pompeii on you’‘Dinner is served. Anger bubbles below the surface, threatening to cover everyone nearby, to trap them like residents of Pompeii.’‘God forbid if this town ever had snow fall on it; a panic would sweep the land and it would burn to the ground faster than Pompeii.’

The totally random:

‘Apparently the people of ancient Pompeii "tweeted" through wall graffiti. Leaving us ancient messages about sex and bodily functions.’‘I was in Pompeii. My mom and I snuck out of the public area and found the bodies.’‘Y63: Nero kills his one kid(maybe...probly). There's an earthquake in Pompeii. They rebuild afterwards. About as smart as Californians. Heh.’

And my personal favourite, the disaffected student:

‘Preparing herself mentally for when she has to listen to some old dude talk about Pompeii for 3hrs Tomorrow.’‘I hate Pompeii. Your not interesting. I wish you were never found’‘I have a sudden urge to watch Ponyo instead of studying Pompeii.’

I hope you are all chuckling as much as I am!

A big thank you to everyone who has contributed over the year, and to all you who read the blog. Keep up the good work!

Monday, 14 December 2009

I’m looking for any blog readers who are wheelchair users, or who have accompanied wheelchair users around the Vesuvian sites. I’ve accompanied wheelchair visitors myself and know that it is well worth it, if somewhat tiring!

We all know that archaeological sites are particularly challenging in terms of access, and it is something that the Soprintendenza is aware of and trying to prioritize (Commissario Fiori is keen to tackle this issue properly in 2010).

However, in the immediate we’d like to help improve the experience of wheelchair visitors (we being the Herculaneum Conservation Project) – and one proposal we’re looking at is a scheme where you could borrow a wheelchair from the ticket office on arrival at Herculaneum, one that would be more robust, lighter and could take the curbs better.

What do you think? Is it a waste of time and money? Is your average wheelchair already robust enough to cope? Would you rather have other services offered?

Our new year resolution is to improve pompeiiinpictures.com by adding two new areas for the Sarno Canal and for views of all streets. We also want to add more older pictures.

We would love to include pictures such as those taken by Tatiana Warscher before WW2, in particular those of Regio I.2 and I.3 and Regio 7.6. These insulas interest us greatly as they have changed so much over the years.

We would also be interested in any pictures from anywhere in Pompeii that you may have which show houses and features that are no longer there or not now visible.

If we had the use of some of these pictures we could return to Pompeii in the Spring to take a new photograph from exactly the same positions and publish the old and the new next to each other.

The problem with a free site such as ours is that we do not have funds to pay for lots of pictures, however all pictures are published with appropriate credits to their copyright owners.

Can anyone help identify sources where our request may be sympathetically received.

Friday, 11 December 2009

Blogging Pompeii will celebrate its first birthday next week! So it's time to take stock, and think about the development of the site.

This your chance to have your say about Blogging Pompeii's future. Please take 60 seconds to complete this survey.

We'd like to know what you like, what you dislike, what you would change, and what ideas you have for the future. We want to hear from contributors and readers alike.

Bear in mind as you fill in the survey that Blogging Pompeii is a blog (!), not a static site like Pompeiana.org and PompeiiinPictures, and its content is changing every day. There are some things that a blog is better suited to than static sites, and vice versa. We want to develop alongside these sites, not to compete against them.

Thank you in participating in this survey! I will report back with the results next week.

Wednesday, 9 December 2009

One aspect that every Pompeian scholar is bound to come up against during the course of their research is the question of what is and isn't reconstructed at Pompeii. In the course of my own work I've examined walls and doorways time and again with this in mind. Now I'd like to open it up to other researchers to kindly point out some details that can be put together as recognised patterns of reconstruction that are otherwise unrecorded in the excavation reports, etc. Please post a reply if you can help with this!Mortar - what is ancient and what is modern?This is a big question because so much relies up on viewing a mortar up close. Occasionally it's possible to know what is a modern repair like repointing (to keep the opus incertum stones from falling apart and allowing the wall to collapse, etc), but does anyone have other markers to point out?

Blocked doorways: Blocked in antiquity or in modern times (and why)?20th century site workers (muratore) developed a method of filling in doorways but leaving gaps at each side of the doorway to show that it was a modern fill. Of course, the largest clue lies in the modern mortar, but does anyone have further thoughts on this and/or why the muratore thought this was necessary?Earthquake damage to walls in AD 63: How to know?John Dobbins and the Pompeii Forum Project have carried out some great work on noting wall failure patterns and the subsequent repairs. But does anyone else have some tips?

A very interesting and informative book that, to our inexpert eyes, is well thought out and executed. It will be of interest to both students of Roman Archaeology and those looking away from the monumental and heroic and more towards the daily life of the ordinary people.

The author is a Medical Doctor and has a degree in Archaeology so he knows his subject. The subject is different and not covered elsewhere in this breadth. He has worked with the Anglo American Project in Pompeii and with numerous other people. With the aid of a team of five helpers has been able to survey virtually the whole of Pompeii. Bob is very interested in latrines also, so we have probably been treading the same ground.

We are not expert enough (there can’t be many who are) to perform an academic critique of the book but, in view of the interest shown on the blog have set out some detail of the structure and coverage of the book and some comments about its potential usefulness.

The book starts with Toilets across the Roman world: an introduction, looking first at Rome, Ostia and Hadrian’s Villa, then Southern Italy and Sicily and finally The Empire. The second chapter on Roman Britain covers toilets for the army and toilets for civilians.

Pompeii is well covered. Chapter 3 is devoted to Pompeii but numerous other chapters use Pompeian examples. The author defines Pompeian as including all inhabitants before and after the Roman colonisation. Pompeii unlike many other Roman cities did not have a (foul) sewer system. He states that most types of properties, large and small, had latrines. It is interesting that he puts forward the theory, perhaps difficult to accept in the modern day, that many of the toilets near the doors to the street could have been used by passers by on their daily journeys around Pompeii. Certainly those who visited Pompeii during the recent restaurant closure, which included its toilets, would have wished themselves back in this ancient Pompeii.

Chapter 4 is a Chronology of toilets which apparently have existed since the third millennium BCE. Here Pompeii provides the opportunity to examine at least 200 years of toilet development. Evidence from contemporary writers suggests elite houses used chamber pots which slaves emptied into the toilets in the working areas and kitchen.

The development of Upstairs toilets is covered next. So far 15 have been identified in Pompeii. Nine out of ten samples of mineralised material taken from the downpipes have confirmed the passage of human waste.

Chapter 6 is on Privacy which the author regards as highly complex and attempts to understand the Roman culture and the behaviour it produces so as to be able to interpret the archaeological findings and establish what privacy meant in the Roman world.

Rubbish and its disposal follows, examining Roman writings as well as the impact of formation processes on original deposits. One persons cow dung is it seems another’s cleansing material. The Romans apparently also had a recycling programme.

Dirt, smell and culture seeks to establish the principles of hygiene and cleanliness that operated in Roman times. It looks at attitudes to smells and hygiene as well as at the various smells from toilets, tanneries, fulleries, cesspits and rubbish. Were the wooden pegs occasionally found in walls beside or behind a latrine designed to hold garlands or such material to combat the odours? Were the people simply resigned to the smell because they could not change it?

Chapter 9 is about Water supply, usage and disposal. There was an abundance of cisterns, that of then House of the Painted Capitals holding about 69,000 litres of water. Heavy rain would cause water from the houses to flow under the door thresholds into the street, helping to cleanse them. After the introduction of piped water he finds little evidence of this being connected to the kitchen for drinking or cooking. He then looks at the evidence for flush toilets.

The book then looks at Greek and Roman “writings” on excrement, latrines and toilet utensils to determine Who used the toilet?.

Motions Maladies and Medicine looks at the dangers to public health, disease carrying flies, how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and modern research on preserved faecal material and stresses the need to search diligently in the areas where such material may be found.

Who Cares about Latrines? looks at the published work on latrines, the often lack of interest in that part of the house and the relatively small amount of work on the contents of cesspits and latrines.

The final chapter outlines ideas for Future research. We hope that much more research is undertaken on latrines and in particular collated in the style of this book rather than being left as just an other room lost in a larger number of rooms.

As with many Pompeii books there are a few minor errors. Figure 65 for example is attributed to the latrine in the House of the Duc d’Aumale (VI.7.15) whereas the chalkboard in the photo indicates VI.13.11. (Another house attributed to the Duc d’Aumale is to be found at VI.9.1.) Similarly on page 51 the House of the Silver Wedding is given the location V.7.15 whereas it is at V.2.i.

We agree with the author’s statements about the poor state of many of the latrines, covered in uncleared rubbish, or in our experience simply reburied. This has made identification and photography difficult for us as well.

The only negative comment we can make about the book is that nowhere does he mention pompeiiinpictures.com where you can search for “latrine” and find all those we have managed to photograph. One of the aims for pompeiiinpictures.com is to provide a resource for authors to cross check their material and eliminate any errors before publication. We are more than happy to reply to email queries and requests for help.

The book is a wealth of photographs, material, sources ancient and modern from which to draw. There are 142 illustrations with a very large number from Pompeii and Herculaneum. A 10 page bibliography includes just over a page of ancient works in translation from which the author has quoted frequently in Latin but always with an English translation. A further function of the book is as a catalogue of latrines.

We thoroughly enjoyed this book. We got a copy in Melbourne whilst visiting the Day in Pompeii exhibition earlier this year and have found it an excellent resource to cross check our web site pictures and descriptions originally "derived or deduced" from other sources.

Well worth reading.Jackie and Bob at pompeiiinpictures

Latrinae et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World by Barry HobsonISBN 9780715638507July 2009DuckworthPaperback, 200 pages, 142 Illustrations.List price £14.99, AU$49.95 and US $28.95.(Currently available with substantial discounts on the usual Internet book sites)

Tuesday, 8 December 2009

Here's another interview in our continuing series on Blogging Pompeii. I recently asked a few questions of Eric Poehler, founder and managing editor of Pompeiana.org.

I want to thank Eric not only for all his great work on the site, but also for answering my emails at such a productive time in his life. Eric's has recently become a dad! Yay Eric!___________________________________________________________________

FT: How do you define the mission of the Pompeiana website?

EP:Pompeiana.org, I believe, can be a primary resource for all people interested in the ancient city of Pompeii. Although the site is targeted principally to academics, it is our mission to make Pompeiana.org the “one-stop shop” for researchers and the interested public alike. To accomplish this goal, the site must be more than simply the biggest list of links. Instead, we want Pompeiana.orgto be an online repository for resources relating to the ancient city, eventually including original research by scholars in the field.

FT: How do you think Pompeiana fits in with other sites about Pompeii on the web? What other sites are out there that can contribute to our knowledge of Pompeii?

EP: The site should serve as a complement to the other sites online. There is no reason to try to compete with other websites, nor is there a need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ so to speak. Some websites will always be better at what they do. For example, YouTube will always be the best place for videos about Pompeii and Google Maps now provides street view for Pompeii offering interesting digital walk-throughs. There are three specific sites about Pompeii itself – the Pompeii Superintendency site, Pompeii in Pictures, and Blogging Pompeii– that I think Pompeiana.org strongly complements. The first of these, obviously contains a wealth of information on new and on-going initiatives, but their purpose is broader than research alone. On the other hand, the mission of the other two websites is narrower. Pompeii in Pictures is a treasure of imagery that opens up all the ruins to our eyes, including bare masonry walls, picking up with photographic recordation where the Pompei: pitture e mosaici volumes left off. Blogging Pompeii stands out, however, as the most important new tool on the web for Pompeianists. Blogging Pompeii has accomplished what Pompeiana.org has been unable to do: build an online community that can share information about the latest news, events, publications, etc. and simultaneously serve as a forum to discuss those issues. Broadly speaking, I hope Pompeiana.org will grow as a research tool to make finding and using the best parts of these sites, and others, as easy as possible. I envision taking the user from, for example, a location on a map of the ancient city to the current research on that location, images of it, and a discussion of timely opinions all with the speed of the internet.

FT:Having a bibliography for Pompeii on the site is a terrific idea & I see your page is a work in progress. What are your plans for that?

EP: A robust bibliography is primary to the academic usefulness and legitimacy of Pompeiana.org. With the assistance of keen library and IT professionals at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, I am building a bibliographic database that is accessible using the standard search terms of author, title, year and, eventually, key words. Populating such a database with citations, of course, has always been the hard part. Today, however, this difficulty can be overcome by mining the ever-expanding online sources – worldcat.org in particular – and by tapping social networking sites to ask scholars to share their references. It is fascinating to me to think of the possibilities. Not only will even the most obscure references eventually be captured, but the explosion of full-text sources online will make it possible for many books, articles, and illustrations to be instantly available. Full text is available already in particular areas. Some laudable examples are the Internet Archive, which has a number of out-of-copyright works, including Fiorelli’s Pompeianarum Antiquitatum Historia some of the Notizie degli Scavi di antichita, the Fortuna visiva which website adds more books as well as images of Pompeii from the 18th and 19th centuries, and FastiOnline, perhaps the very best source for the latest information from the field. I want our bibliography on Pompeiana.org to be a first stop for researching the ancient city, a place to find references and to be redirected as seamlessly as possible to other online resources.

FT:Clearly it is the younger generation who immediately think of the web as a way to disseminate scholarly content. How can we convince the "old guard" that the Internet can be a great tool for academic work?

EP: The conservative answer is the standard ten-year plan, or rather, tenure plan: get it, then change the world. But certainly there are more progressive, less cynical approaches. First, we must be vigilant to ensure that what we produce is quality scholarship and not digital for the sake of being digital. In that sense, only the medium of delivery would be different. Beyond maintaining quality, the flexibility of digital formats must eventually be explored to do the things that print formats cannot. Multimedia support for narrative argumentation will be one route, nicely illustrated by the Finnish Project’s treatment of the Domus Marci Lucretii. Data rich sites, such as Pim Allison’s online companion to The Insula of the Menander, vol. III is another avenue that will revolutionize how we publish our ideas and the evidence that supports them.

What I think will happen is that the growing strength of online research tools to find, manage, deploy and (most importantly) analyze information will make the web a more palatable place to publish. There are also more calculating answers that fit into this scenario as well. Web publishing makes the ideas therein not only instantaneously available, but also portable, allowing those ideas to have the greatest chance to make an impact. Of course, the difference between the enormous potential readership on the web and the more limited circulation of print publishing is legitimacy. The flood gates will open when more big names in the field put their weight behind online publication.

On a more philosophical level, it is surprising to me that the power of the web can be dismissed by anyone. A computer connected to the internet is replacing so many iconic items of modern daily life – the newspaper, the television, the phonebook, the telephone – and in most cases improving how we can use those items. Watching the revolutionary events in Iran on Twitter a few months ago clearly demonstrates the raw power of even the most superficial and time wasting of online applications. The question isn’t how can academia escape the omnipresence of the internet, the question is why would it want to?

FT: What other plans do you have for the future of Pompeiana?

EP: The most innovative and challenging initiative in the works for Pompeiana.org is an online Geographical Information System for Pompeii. For my dissertation research and analyses I spent hundreds of hours digitizing the city to serve as the basemap. It horrified me to learn a few years ago that others were enduring the same labors. These data should be available to scholars so that they are free to use those many hours working on their topic rather than the digital infrastructure of its representation and analysis. To this end, we are working to produce a map of Pompeii that researchers can navigate online with the additional ability to download basic spatial information to use on their local computers. In partnership with MainStreetGIS, we expect a functional Phase One GIS to be in place by early 2010 to replace the current beta version.

A GIS, however, is not to be confused with a map. Instead, a GIS uses space itself as the structuring metaphor to organize information. Thus, while an alphabetical list is a very common means to organize information, it is not particularly intuitive or flexible one. A GIS uses the representation of a place itself to contain the information about that place and in so doing, also puts the information for adjacent properties (e.g., a neighboring workshop) or associated properties (e.g., other workshops not in proximity) at the user’s immediate disposal. I am encouraged by the power of this organizational structure to believe that the GIS will in the future be the primary platform for using Pompeiana.org. By linking the searchable bibliography, full-text articles and books, online images, and other electronic resources to each property, research can be done by simply clicking on the location of interest to bring together all of these materials in one place. It’s a big project, but so were the indispensable works of the PPM, the CTP, and Garcia y Garcia’s bibliography. Now imagine them all together, on your screen and weighing only as much as your laptop.

Finally, I would like to put out an open call to all who are interested in making a powerful online resource for Pompeii a reality. This can be done by sharing your personal bibliography, digital imagery, data, or spatial data. We are always in need of your suggestions, advice, and criticisms. Most valuable of all is sharing your time and expertise. If anyone wants to help, please send an email to Pompeiana@gmail.com.

The subject of the "official" guides at Pompeii and the other sites in Italy has long been controversial. So good to see a new course being advertised to help more people pass the exam to become official guides of the Regione Campania.

See the ArcheologiAttiva website for more information on the course that starts in January 2010.

The Commissario Straordinario of the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei, Marcello Fiori was on the RaiTre programme "Geo & Geo" last week.You can watch the interview here which mainly focuses on the "adopt a dog" campaign.

Google Street View has generated an awful lot of chatter about Pompeii on Twitter and in other blogs. I came across one blogger the other day who was advocating the reburial of the site as a solution to its conservation problems, since computer-generated reconstructions mean that tourists no longer need to visit. Conservators are fighting a losing battle, even when they have appropriate funding. Pompeii is dying, there is no doubt about it.You can imagine my knee-jerk reaction to the idea of burying Pompeii, because I'm sure you all just had it too! But since then I have been mulling the idea over. So here are my thoughts, in no particular order. I'd be really interested to know what anyone else thinks.

This is not a new idea, but one that surfaces every few years, often alongside with the idea of building a replica Pompeii for tourists (the best versions imagine the real site left to scholars - now, there's an idea!). The thing is, a replica - whether real or digital - can't reproduce the atmosphere of Pompeii and the experience of walking its streets and entering its houses. We need to remember that Pompeii is a tourist site. I sometimes think that we scholars are there on sufferance. The SAP likes us, for sure, for I don't think the Italian government cares all that much unless there is money to be made. Perhaps I am being too cynical. But note that the majority of Fiori's current initiatives are to do with making the site more accessible and enjoyable for tourists. Even if scholars all agreed that Pompeii should be reburied, the government would never allow it to happen.

Burying Pompeii would be an economic disaster for the region. Ok, the entrance ticket money goes directly to the site and funds (one hopes) conservation and other necessary works. But an entire modern town depends on Pompeii for its livelihood - hotels, restaurants, shops, stalls. This is an economically depressed region at the best of times. Reburying Pompeii would destroy it.

How exactly would it be reburied? Practically, I mean. It took years of effort to get rid of the fill in the first place! Anyone who has read the excavation reports knows that this issue was a serious and costly one. Thank goodness for the A3 autostrada, since that used up a lot of lapilli! So what could be used to rebury the site, where would it come from, and how much would it cost to do it?!

Covering Pompeii over would mean the end of stratigraphic excavation. Reconstructions would document the state of the town in AD 79 (or should I say 2009!), but investigations into Pompeii's pre-AD 79 history would stop. We wouldn't be able to answer any of our questions about the development of the site, for example.

Would any reconstruction really be able to document everything? Scholars are finding new things all the time - I'm thinking about recent research into upper floors and on graffiti, but there are other examples too. And wouldn't the reconstructions decay too (look at the current condition of the Pompejanum at Aschaffenburg, for example)? Even computer-generated reconstructions will eventually degrade.

So is there is a solution? Personally I don't think we can stop the destruction of Pompeii. We can slow it (as they are doing in Herculaneum), but Pompeii won't be around 1000 years from now. Just look at the parts of the town excavated in the 1700s. The walls have crumbled, the wall-paintings have disappeared. And this has happened DESPITE conservation attempts (yes, the first efforts of conservation occurred in the 1770s and have continued since then). So our job is to study and record (in multiple formats) as much as we can now, and to support any efforts of conservation. There is no point complaining about the inevitable decay of the site.

It has come to my attention that Blogging Pompeii has a malware problem, i.e. annoying adverts start popping up after one views the blog. I have absolutely no idea what to do about this. Scanning my computer has made no difference at all. Can anyone suggest how to get rid of this annoyance? Thank you!

Monday, 7 December 2009

For those wanting to learn something new in the New Year, why not sign up for Oxford University's online course on "Pompeii and the Cities of the Roman World".

The course overview says:"Pompeii is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. Its fame and uniqueness are,of course, due to the remarkable way in which it was preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. Using evidence from Pompeii, you can study public buildings, monuments, inscriptions and painted posters that reflect public life, houses and gardens that reveal how the people lived, shops, markets and streets where they earned their living, and tombs where they buried their dead."

Applications are currently being accepted for the January course start. For more information see the Department for Continuing Education's website.

A new tool is available to Pompeian scholars and the general public in the form of Google Street View as described in this BBC news report and this Italian article from Ansa. For those of us who need to check the odd detail it will be useful, but it remains to be seen how much of the site material is documented. From a conservation point of view it is now obvious to a larger number of the public how much the site has suffered despite recent efforts.

By chance I've already spotted a few Pompeian scholars (Jennifer & Arthur Stevens near to the custodians' office) on the Google Street View of Pompeii, although of course everyone's faces are blurred, but their specialised camera equipment gives it away as they chat to a custodian! Let's see who else we can spot!

Thursday, 3 December 2009

We are trying to get in contact with those people who studied and/or excavated in Ercolano using the Villa Maiuri. There was a programme that facilitated this for the period from 1961 to 1979. We have already spoken to various people who were students at the time and its been fascinating finding out where they have ended up (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotec, ICCROM, etc). We’d love to hear from you too!

Here is an Associated Press release about the return of a Pompeian wall-painting. See an earlier post for details about the painting, its original discovery, theft and recovery:

NEW YORK — Two stolen ancient artifacts are being returned to Italy from New York City.

An Italian government representative is taking possession of them at a ceremony Wednesday. The artifacts are a Pompeii plaster wall painting and a Corinthian vase for mixing water and wine.

They were recovered by immigration and customs officials in June. Both items had been scheduled for auction in New York before they were discovered to have been stolen.

Immigration officials said the vase may have been illegally introduced into the art market by Giacomo Medici in 1985. The art dealer was convicted in Rome in 2004 of conspiracy to traffic in antiquities.

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

Marcello Fiori has announced his plans for Pompeii. Read the full story here. He'll be spending 33 million Euros between now and June 2010. Projects include videosurveilance, night visits, lighting, panels and the opening of more houses to the public.

Has anyone else seen WorldCat.org? This is a site that tells you which libraries have the book you are looking for, and I think it could be quite useful.Having said that, I am looking for a copy of Fonti documentarie per la storia degli scavi di Pompei, Ercolano, e Stabia, a cura degli Archivisti Napoletani (Naples 1979), and WorldCat.org told me that the nearest copies were in Michigan and at the Getty! I know there is a copy at the American Academy in Rome because I have used it. But I NEED a copy to be in the UK (does anyone know of one?!).